Tewi Inaba is a youkai rabbit that lives in Eientei, which is deep within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She is the leader of the other youkai rabbits and is said to resemble a hermit. Those who find themselves lost in the bamboo forest can escape by finding Tewi.

Many youkai rabbits live in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Tewi is the leader of all of them. She calls herself the master of the bamboo forest, and she is clearly no ordinary youkai rabbit.

Rabbits used to be a common animal in Japan. When counting animals in Japanese, you use the same word to count birds as you do rabbits. One theory is that in the past, when monks were forbidden from eating animals other than birds, they counted rabbits as birds so that they could still eat them. While it is unclear whether this theory is actually true, rabbits do look rather like birds when they leap.

In the tale of the Hare of Inaba, a hare tricked some sharks into letting it use them as a bridge to cross the sea. The hare counted the sharks as it hopped on their backs, and near the end, it told the sharks that it deceived them to use them as a bridge. When the last shark heard that, it tore into the hare’s body. Then, the hare met the deity Lord Daikoku.

The Hare of Inaba is an impressive god. It even has a shrine revering it.